Back when Kings really ruled, dreams could become reality. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays stamp is not very well printed. It is somewhat a surprise since this is a modern stamp from an advanced country. That the subject matter is so good, the Chinese Pavilion is what earned the site UNESCO heritage status, is a further letdown.
The stamp today is issue A204, a 2 Krona stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden on August 28th, 1970. It was a single stamp issue celebrating a year late the 200th anniversary of the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm Palace Park. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used despite it’s high for the time denomination.
King Adolf Fredrick planned a surprise for his Queen Louisa Ulrika on her birthday in 1753. A Chinese style Pavilion was designed off site and quickly assembled of logs on site. A walk through the Gardens on her birthday culminated in the new addition to the Palace grounds. 7 year old Crown Prince Gustav, dressed in the garb of a Chinese Mandarin Scholar presented his mother with a golden key to the new structure. Queen Louisa Ulrika wrote her mother in Prussia that it was like walking into a fairy tale.
The log structure proved to be unable to cope with the Swedish climate and within 10 years it was badly rotted. A new much larger pavilion was built of stone. That has lasted and what appears on the stamp. The Pavilion also inspired neighboring Kantongaten that housed small lace manufacturers and silk weavers. At the end of the street was a another small Chinese style house. This is where a later Prince kept his ballet dancing mistress, Sophie Hagman. According to Swedish poet Bellman, Her entire being was a feast for the eyes. So I can see why it would be good to keep her handy.
The palace is still used by the Royals today. In 2010, the Chinese Pavilion was broken into and the collection of priceless Chinese artifacts stolen. The thieves were in and out in 6 minutes and escaped on a moped and the police think by boat. No artifacts were recovered and no arrest was made.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.